


Love (Goes On and On)

by nonbinarynica



Category: Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)
Genre: F/M, Flashbacks, M/M, One Shot, Post-Canon, Riku's POV, Song Lyrics, post-kh3, riku deciding what love means
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-10
Updated: 2021-01-10
Packaged: 2021-03-13 18:15:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,397
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28657839
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nonbinarynica/pseuds/nonbinarynica
Summary: A one shot spanning the length of time from the Destiny Trio's childhood to the moment Sora fades away on the beach at the end of III─ all told from Riku's POV.Or, alternatively; the one shot in which Riku reflects back throughout his childhood, and what he thought love entailed up until a certain point, and comes to a final conclusion on what love actually means.
Relationships: riku/sora/kairi
Comments: 4
Kudos: 12





	Love (Goes On and On)

**Author's Note:**

> I took the fic title, as well as some lines throughout the fic itself, from the song "Love" by Nancy Adams from the Disney Robin Hood movie (which is honestly one of my favorite Disney movies I'm ngl).
> 
> To save any confusion, I will warn in advance that as this is a fic containing flashbacks of sorts it *will* jump back and forth between the past/Riku's childhood with the others, and the present/recent events.
> 
> That being said, this fic came to me at around 3:45 in the morning and I wanted to just get it out, so I apologize for any grammatical errors or incoherency. And with THAT being said, I made a few friends suffer when I showed them a preview of this fic so I hope you all enjoy :)

_Love, it seems like only yesterday─_

  
  


At the age of nine, he’s the oldest in their little band─ him, Sora, Kairi, Tidus, Wakka, and Selphie, with Sora and Kairi admittedly being the ones closest to his little heart─ and as the oldest, he knows that makes him the ringleader. He takes it upon himself to protect his friends. Because he has to. They’re the things that matter. Riku knows that he loves Sora and Kairi the most. He _knows_ this. He _also_ knows that the kind of love he feels for them in particular entails liking the way Sora’s hand is always warm in his, and liking the way Kairi tastes of ocean salt when the two of them are dared one day by Selphie to kiss each other. It’s innocent enough, just a peck on the lips and nothing more, but it’s enough to make Riku realize that day that even if he _claims_ he’ll never kiss a girl again, he wouldn’t ever mind kissing her again in the future. That is, if she’d want to kiss him, too ─ but he never asks, never again brings up that first kiss. He’s too scared to.

But… he knows he loves them both, and that if it ever came down to it he couldn’t possibly choose between them. You couldn’t make him if you wanted to. He doesn’t ever imagine being presented with that choice at all. The youthful naivety of childhood infatuation at its finest.

  
  


_You were just a child at play─_

  
  


Riku knows that love entails spending time with your friends. It entails enjoying the sparring sessions with Tidus, Wakka, and Sora with their makeshift wooden swords, the racing Sora and Kairi through the sand that sparkles a brilliant white, and the playing with them in the water where the sun shines golden off the surface of the waves. They splash, race about, fall over each other, giggle. Children at play. Innocence for days that none of them are honestly aware won’t last forever. Their combined laughter rings out and for Riku, at nine years old, he knows it’s all he needs. He knows he’s _happy_. He knows that this is what love entails.

  
  


_Now you’re all grown up inside of me, oh how fast those moments flee─_

  
  


He’s only _sixteen fucking_ _years old_ when he and Sora wield their Keyblades against Xemnas, and of course it’s… nothing at all like how they used to play wielding those wooden swords what seems like a lifetime ago.

He’s still around that _same age_ when, for Sora’s sake, he pits himself against the Demon Tide in the Keyblade Graveyard, and while for the most part he knows it’s something he would have always done for his friend, a part of Riku just… wishes it had never come to this. He wishes they hadn't been forced into any of this, that they could have just stayed on the Islands after all. Wishes they weren’t forced into fighting a war they never even started. Wishes he, Sora, and Kairi could have been kids just a little longer; would have never taken the days of his childhood for granted had he known, back then, what the future held in store for the three of them.

  
  


_Once we watched a lazy world go by, now the days seem to fly─_

  
  


There’s a hill in the fields just outside of town _─_ a grassy one, and one that’s so perfectly rounded, on top of being at just the right height, that it reminds Riku of one of the Shire homes in the Hobbit book his father gave him for his eleventh birthday. 

One of his favorite things about the hill is how soft the grass is at the top. He, Sora, and Kairi enjoy a lot of the time, when they’re not with the others, just lying in said grass on the hill’s summit, holding hands and staring up at the sky ─ be it pointing out shapes in clouds that float by on slow afternoons, or naming nighttime constellations in the quiet evenings. He’s twelve, and Sora and Kairi are eleven, and all Riku knows is that life is good to them. Summers have come and gone, they’re growing up, but he doesn’t believe they’ll ever be apart from each other. Even when they leave the Islands one day like they all three dream of doing, they’ll be together. And that’s all that matters to Riku. That’s all he knows, all he _wants_. Because love entails wanting to be with someone your entire life, right?

  
  


_Life is brief, but when it’s gone─_

  
  


It seems like they’ve only just gotten Sora back, and Kairi too, but their happiness doesn’t last long. As Riku watches, Sora fades out of existence itself, fades away from where he’s sitting beside Kairi on the paopu tree ─ _their_ paopu tree, the one _they_ always sat at _together_ ─ and he feels like a part of himself has been yanked away… like a piece of his heart has, honestly, been ripped out of his chest. Because with Sora, there goes a piece of him that was always a _constant_. 

He lost Sora once. Lost Kairi once. Got them both back. Lost one of them again, got that one back, and now he’s lost one of them all over again once more… and it _hurts_ . It hurts, and it’s enough to cause a physical ache in his chest. It also takes every ounce of willpower he has not to sink to his knees in the sand and cry out. He’s not… he’s not like that. _He’s the strong one_. He has to be the strong one, for everyone else’s sake ─ and it would be selfish of him to believe that he’s the only one affected by this loss. There’s the others, there’s Roxas and Xion, there’s─

_Kairi_. Oh, god, Kairi. He stares at where she’s still perched on the tree, head bowed with tears staining her cheeks as she stares at the spot Sora was sitting mere seconds ago, and the ache in his chest only grows stronger at the sight. He wonders what she must be thinking. Is she… is she blaming herself? Is she already in mourning? What could be running through that head of hers?

Riku’s feet are the heaviest they’ve ever felt, and he can’t yet bring himself to move from his spot on the beach. He stands there for what feels like an eternity, even as the others move and talk in hushed voices around him. They’re still talking in hushed voices as Kairi finally makes her way onto the beach and moves to position herself beside Riku. She’s silent, doesn’t say a goddamned word. Instead of words, action; she reaches for his hand, and he lets her, doesn’t make a move to pull away. She needs him at that moment, and vice-versa. Kairi links her fingers between his and just stares out at the waters before them. 

They stay like that for a long time in a mutual, unspoken agreement that words won’t be enough. Not at this time. Even then, the silence is heavy, loaded with everything unsaid between the two of them. 

It took him until now to realize, where he didn’t before, that for Sora love entails the same as it did for Riku: it entails _sacrifice_ . He also realizes, on top of all his other past realizations, that come endgame what love _also_ entails, what love has always entailed since the beginning of time, is that on top of all the _joy_ , on top of all the _pain_ , if you hold a person in your heart, in your _heart of hearts_ … they're never gone. No, never truly. Sora's out there, somewhere, and he’s _alive_ ; while it feels like a piece of Riku is missing, now, it would feel a thousand times worse were Sora to be dead. He and Kairi would both feel it horribly were that to be the case. No, he's still alive ─ which means they _will_ find him. For now, their shared love for Sora means they’ll be able to carry on, and on top of that figure out a way to get him back. That love will give them the strength they both need to carry on, together, and fight to bring him home and then some.

Because after all, with everything it entails…

**_Love goes on and on._ **


End file.
